Normally a lurker, but I have a tripster ATR so here are my thoughts...
It's fecking amazing IF you want a bike that is primarily for rambling adventures, dirt roads, light tours and so on.
I ride it mostly on road for long distances - up to 600km so far - (I am an audax rider) and it is super comfy, solved my tingly hands problem. On road it is fine - very stable as you would expect - but a little uninspiring. I think of it as a Range Rover - smooth, capable, comfy - and when you need that it is perfect. Once you hit dirt roads and mild tracks though it really starts to make sense and you can bowl along on that kind of terrain at speed forever, it's really really nice on that kind of thing, so much better than my Kinesis 4t. It's also a great commuter as it soams up crap london streets and it's easy to pop it over curbs and such. You know when MTBs went long, low and slack but still managed to handle ok? The ATR is like that, but on a drop bar bike and no where near as extreme obviously.
However, if I had my time again, I would get the GF ti. This is because I like my bikes to feel a little bit more sporty. I picked up the ATR second hand, so not complaining and I will use it for very long rides, comutting and fowl weather days but I am looking for a new steel road frame of the 73 parallel kind with mudguards and sidepull brakes for shorter audaxs and summer fun.
So it's all a question of whether that extra 0.5kph on road speed of a GF would be useful to you? Also be aware that the head tubes on the ATR are really long - if you need a more traditional fit or lower bards the GF will be better.
Normally a lurker, but I have a tripster ATR so here are my thoughts...
It's fecking amazing IF you want a bike that is primarily for rambling adventures, dirt roads, light tours and so on.
I ride it mostly on road for long distances - up to 600km so far - (I am an audax rider) and it is super comfy, solved my tingly hands problem. On road it is fine - very stable as you would expect - but a little uninspiring. I think of it as a Range Rover - smooth, capable, comfy - and when you need that it is perfect. Once you hit dirt roads and mild tracks though it really starts to make sense and you can bowl along on that kind of terrain at speed forever, it's really really nice on that kind of thing, so much better than my Kinesis 4t. It's also a great commuter as it soams up crap london streets and it's easy to pop it over curbs and such. You know when MTBs went long, low and slack but still managed to handle ok? The ATR is like that, but on a drop bar bike and no where near as extreme obviously.
However, if I had my time again, I would get the GF ti. This is because I like my bikes to feel a little bit more sporty. I picked up the ATR second hand, so not complaining and I will use it for very long rides, comutting and fowl weather days but I am looking for a new steel road frame of the 73 parallel kind with mudguards and sidepull brakes for shorter audaxs and summer fun.
So it's all a question of whether that extra 0.5kph on road speed of a GF would be useful to you? Also be aware that the head tubes on the ATR are really long - if you need a more traditional fit or lower bards the GF will be better.
Hope this helps - it's a nice problem to have :-)